Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand meets with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday.Gilles Sabrié/The Globe and Mail
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, in Beijing to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Xi Jinping, says the two countries have reopened a communication channel that will enable them to stabilize ruptured relations and, hopefully, resolve a punishing trade dispute.
Ms. Anand spent two hours talking to her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during her first trip to China since being appointed Canada’s top diplomat in May. She is only the second Canadian foreign minister to visit China in eight years: a period that saw relations hit their lowest point in more than a quarter century.
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The pair met at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in western Beijing where China entertains foreign dignitaries.
After the meeting, Mr. Wang issued a positive statement saying the Canadian minister’s visit offered an opportunity to propel China-Canada relations toward a “new starting point.” He said although the two countries have “different systems and paths,” they have “always shared broad common interests and vast space for cooperation.”
In a shift that marks a new approach to China under Mr. Carney, Ottawa and Beijing have agreed to revive a “strategic partnership” first launched under Paul Martin’s government that amounts to a hotline between countries where they can work through disagreements or build ties.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand meeting in Beijing Friday marks the second time a Canadian foreign minister has visited China in eight years.Gilles Sabrié/The Globe and Mail
“We have a forum for the discussion and hopeful resolution of trade issues in this strategic partnership,” Ms. Anand in interview with The Globe and Mail in Beijing. She said it’s a better alternative to handling matters on an “issue by issue basis.”
The Globe and Mail was granted access to China this week after being denied permission for a reporter to enter the country for several years. The newspaper hasn’t reported from China since briefly during the COVID-era Winter Olympics of February, 2022, and its last full-time correspondent to be stationed inside the country left in June, 2021. The Globe currently has a correspondent based in Hong Kong.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said a forum like the partnership is necessary “given different ideological systems” in Canada and China. “There needs to be the basis for those conversations.”
Canadian seafood, meat and agricultural producers have been losing market share in the Asian country of 1.4 billion people since Beijing imposed hefty tariffs earlier this year in retaliation for a 100 per cent levy Ottawa imposed on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024.
A cargo ship sails into the port in Qingdao, in China’s eastern Shandong province, earlier this week.-/AFP/Getty Images
But beyond the trade dispute, Canada and China are still recovering from a serious fracture in their relationship more than six years ago when Ottawa arrested an executive from the country’s tech flagship Huawei and Beijing retaliated by jailing two Canadians. Around the same time, many Western countries ramped up criticism of China for its crackdown on civil rights in Hong Kong, its efforts to isolate and intimidate neighbouring Taiwan and its treatment of Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.
“There was a full recognition that while we don’t always agree, we should be able to have a conversation,” the Canadian minister said.
Canada has “a new government, a new prime minister, a new foreign policy, and the approach bilaterally with China is to ensure that we have regular and candid conversations to enhance cooperation and address respective concerns,” Ms. Anand said. “Will we always agree? No, but will we have the forum to assert Canada’s interests? Yes.”
Ms. Anand’s visit marks the beginning of a bigger Canadian presence in China under Mr. Carney. Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Identity and Culture Minister, was in the capital at the same time as Ms. Anand, attending an environmental conference on behalf of the Carney government.
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She said International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald will also be heading to China in the near future.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said China is interested in talking to Canada about energy – a timely topic given record oil sales to Chinese buyers in recent months – and this will lead to discussions with Beijing. “There’s a recognition of Canada’s vast potential in terms of energy and and the energy dialogue is what needs to take this to the next level.”
Ms. Anand could not say when or if Canada intends to scrap or reduce the EV tariff on Chinese vehicles – a decision made more difficult by disagreement among Canadian premiers. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who heads the province with the most auto jobs, is dead set against this while western provinces that produce crops such as canola are campaigning to end the EV levy on China.
Both China and Canada are preparing for a first meeting between Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi as early as this month when the Canadian leader tours Asia.
A combine harvester works as canola is harvested on a farm in Manitoba last month.Shannon Vanraes/Reuters
Ms. Anand acknowledged this but would not say whether the meeting is planned for the late October Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
On Thursday, Mr. Carney told reporters: “I expect to meet the senior Chinese leadership in the coming month or so and we’ll continue those discussions, and we’ll see where the trade relationship evolves.”
The revised strategic partnership will make it easier to cooperate with China on security matters, on economic priorities, on international health issues as well as climate change and the mobility of people between the two countries, the Foreign Minister said.
Mr. Wang, the Chinese Foreign Minister, has not visited Canada since 2016. Ms. Anand said she’s invited him to come.
Asked when Canada might be able to reach a compromise or agreement with China on the trade dispute, the foreign affairs minister said a meeting between Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi would be important.
Canada’s Parliament in 2021 passed a resolution condemning China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as a genocide and Canada has taken in dissidents fleeing repression in Hong Kong.
Ms. Anand said human rights concerns are part of the third “core values” pillar of foreign policy under the Carney government.
However, she noted, “there are other issues as well that are are important, given the changing global strategic environment, given the changing economic environment.”